A place to phlog my ideas. Much to learn : Too little time. fos1 ================================================================ Next: AI vs. Real I FICO scores??? December 5, 2025 - If you want to develop situational awareness, learn the skills to become an instrument rated aviator. November 29, 2025 - My daughter is an EE, her husband is an ME. They visited us for the holidays. Engineers don't invent things, they follow other people's rules. November 21, 2025 - IMPERMANENCE - Heisenberg would be proud. November 8, 2025 - Why does it take a crisis to appreciate our loved ones as the precious individuals they truly are? When you imagine yourself, it is hard to imagine non-existence. November 7, 2025 - Chuckie's epic shutdown continues. The democrats are evil and only in the game for their personal power. :( October 31, 2025 - Just about everyone in today's society is engrossed on their smart device every waking moment. It is however, rude to use it even during meals and/or whenever someone would like to carry on a conversation, whether important or not. Smart devices are the bane of polite society. OK, now you can fact check me on your smart device... October 23, 2025 - Desire: Need; Want; Don't Care October 18, 2025 - +1 - BTW Even in my 60s, I imagined sleeping late in my retirement; Now retired, I am always up before the Sun... :( October 18, 2025 - Chaos Cells divide with random mutations; leading to evolution (or cancer). In your brain, neurons fire irregularly; leading to out of the box thoughts. October 17, 2025 - Thoughts while reading. "A Return to the God Hypothesis", Stephen C. Meyer, 2021 1. There is evidence that universe had a beginning. 2. From the beginning the universe has been finely tuned to allow for the possibility of life. 3. From the beginning evidense from biology that large amounts of DNA have developed making new forms of life possible. October 6, 2025 - Evil always festers and regroups. Proper and moral societies must always fight to maintain order. September 26, 2025 - Men are from Mars. Women are from Venus. ! September 13, 2025 - The greatest talent of your brain: The ability to learn. Stanislas Dehaene, 2020 Gifted speakers become lawmakers and leaders. September 11, 2025 - Certainly a time for reflection... and remembrance. Critical Thinking > Intelligence (IQ) Oxford Tutorial System - Question - Answer - Defend Critique August 20, 2025 - Plowing through senior citizenship trying to maximize the mileage. August 16, 2025 - Who is "They" The globalists? Who are the globalists? Seeking global control? August 8, 2025 - Submarine Chess I lived through the Cold War, duck and cover, etc. These chess moves are deadly for the world. Someone's shaky and/or dead hands could slip. Add the whack jobs in the Middle East that believe they will get rewards in heaven. It becomes a terrifying situation. The World doesn't have the collective wisdom to have access to weapons of mass destruction. July 31, 2025 - Fees! I have two American Express cards and a membership in Amazon Prime. Every year at the end of July, I am surprised to see the fees I am charged for using their systems. My regular green American Express card charges $100 per year. AE charges $80 per year for my "clear" American Express card. It hasn't actually been clear for a couple of years. They charge me $80 for that privilege. Amazon charges $150 per month for the Prime privilege. It supposedly has free shipping but it is actually added to the price of the items and you just don't see it individualized out. That is $330 on July 31 of each year just in fees! (My wife has a gold American Express. I think she is being charged $200 per year for that one! It's just a credit card that is a different color... July 21, 2025 - Star People We are all star people. All elements larger that hydrogen were formed by fusion is some dying super star. Organic life forms are all made from heavy element that are larger than hydrogen. Though hydrogen is a MAJOR part of organic (carbon) based lifeforms, a very large portion of our physical being came from some long dead star and its exposion that sent the heavy elements out into the universe. Hence, we are star people. QED July 20, 2025 - Watershed Day Differing points of view, motorcycles, guitars and Beanie Baby dolls. This year (2025) it is the Labubu doll, a $2 plush toy that this retails for as much as $85 and much more depending on where and how you can find one to buy. July 12, 2025 - Epstein Case The Epstein Case and it's attendant files have turned into a big deal. Trump's DOJ and FBI administrators have really stepped into a mess. The case goes as far back as 2008 when it blew up in Florida. It inlovles sex trafficing and sex with underage individuals. From 2008 until the present, it has been alleged that VERY powerful individuals have been involved. Now, Trump and his admins state that there is nothing to see and we need to move on. This begs the question: Who is being protected? I imagine is covers powerful individuals on both sides of the aisle. I am sure that Trump is not implicated. If he had been, the Democrats would have used that info to put him on ice a long time ago. Who elso else can we think of that would split this country in two if the real news came out? Someone that must be protected at all costs to save the county. I have a short list but I am not about to point fingers. July 6, 2025 - Guitars I was born before the 1st Strat was ever produced. I guess that makes me vintage. My value is decreasing. I'm perishable. There is no question that pre-CBS Strats are "vintage" and valuable, many of them are museum show pieces. There are three types of guitar owners: players, pros and collectors. Players and pros want guitars that play well and sound great. Collectors like to hang trophies on the wall to look at and admire. Some collectors have lots of money, others just spend lots of money on collectibles. Collectability is in the eye and whim of collectors. Whether any modern era guitar becomes collectable is speculative. Bottom line: buy what you like. The odds that it will increase in value beyond the inflation rate is speculative. Especially in course of a lifetime. Beware: Stuff Acquisition Syndrome (SAS) - Buying isn't a substitute for doing. Items should not be trophies? July 3, 2025 - Computer reliability Paper and pencil are more reliable than computers, A lesson I first learned in the early days of personal computers. I was diligently converting the paper ledgers for my small business into an accounting system. After hours (days) of work, my toddler son erased everything by simply pushing the prominent red button on the front face of my computer console... July 1, 2025 - RANT I have had United Healthcare (ARRP) health insurance since my retirement at the end of 2019. The premium at that time was $125.00 per month. Social Security also takes an amount straight out of my Social Security retirement for health care directly. Since the initial $125 per month, it has increased to $379.00 month! It went up $60.00 per month this July, in the middle of the year. United Healthcare did the same last year. You have the opportunityjoin each medicare supplement or advantage plan each year in November / December. There is always an increase at the beginning of the new plan year on January 1st. Please note: these frequent healthcare cost increases are far more than the piddly cost of living increases that are paid out by Social Security! In addition, there is the cost of Subpart D for prescription drugs. SS deducts money for that from you SS check in addition to a monthly premium. Did I mention that Eliquis costs $125.00 per month after an initial $675.00 deductible each year? Eliquis has been out of patent in the rest of the world for a number of years. Here in the US, politicians keep extending the patents on blood thinner so the pharmaceutical companies can make billions. Where the heck is DOGE? grrr.... June 25, 2025 - Stuff Acquisition Syndrome (SAS): Buying isn't a substitute for doing. No need to fill up the china closet with stuff that never gets used. June 23, 2025 @ ~1730 CDT President Trump has announced a 24 hour cease fire between Israel and Iran. He added that it WILL bring an "Official End" to the war. Networks are indicating the President Trump brokered the deal. Addendum - June 24, 2025 - Already violations from both sides. :( Let's hope there isn't too much history in the way. Addendum - June 25, 2025 - The cease fire seems to holding. Maybe? :) June 21,2025 - Addendum @ 2030 CDT The US has attacked Iran's nuclear sites, most significantly the uranium enrichment site at Fordow. President Trump did say that he would make a decision "within two weeks". QED More will follow tomorrow. This action certainly has worldwide implications. We await battle damage assessments to determine the missions success. Reactions from around the world are sure to be intense from every perspective. Hopefully, escalation beyond this point will be minimal. June 21, 2025 - Summer Solstice - I need to setup a permanent marker in my yard... My "Next:" post turned out to be prophetic. But, this battle is not just other people's. It is for us and most everone else. This proliferation (development) of atomic weapons is particularly onerous. The World does not need a fascist government controlled by religious extremeists to have the ultimate weapon of mass destruction under their thumb. Particlularly a government that has professed "Death to Big Satan" and "Death to Little Satan" for 47 years. The World needs more wisdom not more atomic engergy, weapons grade or not. Next: The futility of fighting other people's battles... May 28, 2025 - Should the government be in the publishing and media business? May 28, 2025 - Documents on the Amazon Kindle e-readers I have been using an Amazon Kindle since 2008 or so. I have used just about every model available. I frequently send documents to my Kindle to make them available for reading wherever I happen to be. I have generally sent them to my Kindle as pdf documents. However, formatting of the pdf documents on the Kindle is very limited. I recently found the MS Word docx documents can be formatted on the Kindle as it is read. Very nice! From now on docx will my preferred method for personal documents that I save for reading. May 17, 2025 - The Skillcraft U. S. Government Pen In the sixties, I was very young in grade school. We were learning to write cursive. To add to our struggles, we had to use ink pens. They were messy affairs that had a nib that was easy to damage. At least we were allowed to use the moder Shaeffer cartridge pen whicch helped a little. (I still have one or two in my pen collection along with a package of the translucent plastic cartridges.) Even with the cartridges they were messy. A cartridge might last for week with the writing practice we had to do daily. If you touched the nib or dropped the pen, it would leave an ink blot worth that psychologist Rorschack. Did I mention that had/have what is now called dyslexia? For the life of me, I couldn't get letters like q and g and d and b figured out. I endured a lot of laughing. At least these days I have spell checking which works most of the time. I used to use print dictionaries. Funny thing, Even if I used the same confusing word more than once on the same page, I would have to look it up over and over. Maybe that's why I still like pencils. You can erase them and all they do is smudge - not leak! Where was I? May 11, 2025 - Fos1's Phlog - 1st Entry - initial setup.